The newcomer is "Flixbus", a German company that already operates a wide network of services throughout Europe and a growing number of routes in the UK. The company also owns the famous Greyhound Lines coach service in the USA.
As with existing operator Megabus, which until recently was part of the Stagecoach group, Flixbus coaches will call at Lancaster University rather than the city centre, which perhaps gives a hint of where both operators see their target markets. Similarly, both provide a single journey in each direction, although they do follow slightly different routes.
So how do the two compare?
Flixbus coaches will leave Glasgow (Buchanan Bus Station) at 0830 every morning, except Wednesday and Thursday and run non-stop to Lancaster University, calling there at 1140. From Lancaster, the coaches will call at Preston (Coach Station) 1220; Manchester (Shudehill Bus Stn) 1340; Birmingham (Dudley Street) 1605; London (Finchley Road) 1835 and London (Victoria Coach Station) at 1910 giving a Glasgow to Lancaster journey time of 3h 10m and a Lancaster to London time of 7h 30
Northbound coaches leave London at 1000 and call at Finchley Road 1030; Birmingham 1255; Manchester 1520; Preston 1635; Lancaster University 1720 and arrive at Glasgow at 2030. The Lancaster call, at 1720, is right in the middle of the afternoon peak for students leaving the campus and the Flixbus coaches may not be exactly welcome there at such a busy time.
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| Not much room for Flixbus during the afternoon peak in the Underpass. |
At the moment, bookings are being taken only for journeys up until 23rd May, so times and days of operation may change after then.
The Megabus service, which runs daily, provides an earlier northbound journey and a later southbound one. Coaches leave Glasgow (Buchannan Bus Station) at 1100 and run non-stop to Lancaster University at 1405. They then call at Preston (Coach Station) at 1445; Manchester (Shudehill) 1550; Manchester Airport 1630; Birmingham (Navigation Street) 1810 and London, Victoria Coach Station at 2105.
Megabus is just five minutes faster than Flixbus between Glasgow and Lancaster at 3h 05m but half-an-hour faster to London, despite calling additionally at Manchester Airport.
Northbound coaches leave Victoria Coach Station at 0800, Birmingham at 1045, Manchester Airport 1230, Manchester 1300, Preston 1410, Lancaster University 1450 and Glasgow at 1805.
Note that the stopping places may not be always where you expect them, with neither Megabus nor Flixbus using the coach stations used by National Express in Manchester or Birmingham. In the former city they call at Shudehill Bus Station, which is near Victoria Railway Station and which has a convenient tram stop attached to enable access to other parts of the city centre.
In Birmingham, both eschew the delights of the much-improved Digbeth Coach Station, well-known to generations of coach travellers, in favour of obscure (and frankly, unwelcoming), side streets.
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| The Flixbus stop in Dudley Street |
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| The Megabus stop "Navigation Street" (actually just round the corner in Brunel Street) |
How do fares compare?
As with all long-distance public transport today, the answer to "How much does it cost" is "It depends!"
Both Flixbus and Megabus use yield-management techniques to offer cheaper fares on less popular timings and higher fares where demand is expected to be greatest. At present, Flixbus will have no direct experience of demand on which to base their prices (although they will have been keeping an eye on their competitor's fares). Initially, they seem to be offering single fares between Lancaster and London for either £19.99 or £24.99 depending on the date, although you have to add a £1 "service fee" to actually obtain a ticket. Full details of fares and times are on the website www.flixbus.co.uk, but be careful: if you go instead to flixbus.com you'll be offered fares in US Dollars. You'll also get the times in the 12-hour clock format still used in America, rather than the more familiar 24hr-clock system.
Megabus is offering fares to London at £18.50 (£17.50 in the return direction) at the moment, but once again there is a "booking fee" of £1. Fares on both operators are likely to change once competition begins.
Can I reserve a seat?
On Megabus a small number of the more desirable seats towards the front of the coach is available to reserve at a small additional cost. All other seats are on a first-come-first-served basis, although one assumes that the number of tickets sold will not exceed the number of seats! The Megabus website is here.
Flixbus offers the opportunity to reserve a specific seat, chosen from a seating plan, at a cost of 99p (although seats in the front row will cost you £2.49). They also offer anti-social passengers the prospect of "travelling neighbour free" by reserving the adjacent seat, but the examples we found involved payment of an extra £18.74 (almost another single fare) to do so.
Both operators have seating plans on view, from which it is apparent that Flixbus will be using conventional single deck coaches, whereas Megabus favours double-deckers with most seats on the upper deck. Unlike, Megabus, Flixbus does not own its own vehicles, but hires them in from contractors, so actual seating plans may vary.
But What of National Express?
